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View all search resultsSchool collapses raise concerns over misplaced priorities in education budget
While the Rp 757.8 trillion (US$46.82 billion) budgeted for education next year has been hailed as the largest in modern history, experts have pointed out that deducting the free meals allocation would leave just Rp 422.8 trillion, the smallest in recent years.
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Systemic breakdown?: An employee looks for salvageable items on Nov. 4, 2025, in a collapsed classroom at SMKN 1 Gunung Putri in Bogor regency, West Java, the day after heavy rain and strong winds damaged five buildings and injured 42 students at the vocational senior high school. (Antara/Yulius Satria Wijaya)
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series of building collapses at several schools across the county has raised serious concerns about the government’s commitment to fixing aging education infrastructure, even as it pours substantial funds into President Prabowo Subianto's flagship initiatives, such as the free nutritious meal and Sekolah Rakyat (community school) programs.
Most recent is the collapse of a building containing several classrooms and the faculty room at SDN Pajenangger V elementary school on Kangean Island in Sumenep regency, East Java, in the early hours on Thursday.
Rifai, a teacher at the school, said the building had been in a state of severe disrepair for at least three years, with cracks running along the walls and a leaking roof.
“Before the incident, we moved the classes to the terraces [of nearby residences] because we feared for the children’s safety. But we eventually had to return to the classrooms because teaching on the terraces wasn’t conducive,” she told Kompas.com.
Following the building’s collapse, learning activities were being conducted on the terrace of a classroom just a few meters from the debris, she added.
Read also: East Java school collapse toll hits 67 as search ends
The Sumenep Education Agency said the regency administration could only rebuild the school next year due to land ownership and administrative hurdles, leaving the school’s 76 students without a proper space to continue their education.
